#russian nationals 2018

[figureskatingcostumes]

Alena Leonova’s short program costume at the 2018 NHK Trophy, 2019 Cup of Russia Final and 2019 Russian Championships.

(Sources: 1, 2 and 3)

[batboyblog]

Things the Biden-Harris Administration Did This Week #29

July 26-August 2 2024

President Biden announced his plan to reform the Supreme Court and make sure no President is above the law. The conservative majority on the court ruled that Trump has "absolute immunity" from any prosecution for "official acts" while he was President. In response President Biden is calling for a constitutional amendment to make it clear that Presidents aren't above the law and don't have immunity from prosecution for crimes committed while in office. In response to a wide ranging corruption scandal involving Justice Clarence Thomas, President Biden called on Congress to pass a legally binding code of ethics for the Supreme Court. The code would force Justices to disclose gifts, refrain from public political actions, and force them to recuse themselves from cases in which they or their spouses have conflicts of interest. President Biden also endorsed the idea of term limits for the Justices.

The Biden Administration sent out an email to everyone who has a federal student loan informing them of upcoming debt relief. The debt relief plan will bring the total number of a borrowers who've gotten relief from the Biden-Harris Administration to 30 million. The plan is due to be finalized this fall, and the Department of Education wanted to alert people early to allow them to be ready to quickly take advantage of it when it was in place and get relief as soon as possible.

President Biden announced that the federal government would step in and protect the pension of 600,000 Teamsters. Under the American Rescue Plan, passed by President Biden and the Democrats with no Republican votes, the government was empowered to bail out Union retirement funds which in recent years have faced devastating cut of up to 75% in some cases, leaving retired union workers in desperate situations. The Teamster union is just the latest in a number of such pension protections the President has done in office.

President Biden and Vice-President Harris oversaw the dramatic release of American hostages from Russia. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former Marine Paul Whelan held since 2018, Russian-American reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Alsu Kurmasheva convicted of criticizing the Russian Military, were all released from captivity and returned to the US at around midnight August 2nd. They were greeted on the tarmac by the President and Vice-President and their waiting families. The deal also secured the release of German medical worker Rico Krieger sentenced to death in Belarus, Russian-British opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, and 11 Russians convicted of opposing the war against Ukraine or being involved in Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption organization. Early drafts of the hostage deal were meant to include Navalny before his death in Russian custody early this year.

A new Biden Administration rule banning discrimination against LGBT students takes effect, but faces major Republican resistance. The new rule declares that Title IX protects Queer students from discrimination in public schools and any college that takes federal funds. The new rule also expands protections for victims of sexual misconduct and pregnant or parenting students. However Republican resistance means the rule can't take effect nation wide. Lawsuits from Republican controlled states, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming, means the new protections won't come into effect those states till the case is ruled on likely in a Supreme Court ruling. The Biden administration crafted these Title IX rules to reflect the Supreme Court's 2020 Bostock case.

The Biden administration awarded $2 billion to black and minority farmers who were the victims of historic discrimination. Historically black farmers have been denied important loans from the USDA, or given smaller amounts than white farmers. This massive investment will grant 23,000 minority farmers between $10,000 and $500,000 each and a further 20,000 people who wanted to start farms by were improperly denied the loans they needed between $3,500-$6,000 to get started. Most payments went to farmers in Mississippi and Alabama.

The Biden Administration took an important step to stop the criminalization of poverty by changing child safety guidelines so that poverty alone isn't grounds for taking a child into foster care. Studies show that children able to stay with parents or other family have much better outcomes then those separated. Many states have already removed poverty from their guidelines when it comes to removing children from the home, and the HHS guidelines push the remaining states to do the same.

Vice-President Harris announced the Biden Administration's agreement to a plan by North Carolina to forgive the state's medical debt. The plan by Democratic Governor Roy Cooper would forgive the medical debt of 2 million people in the state. North Carolina has the 3rd highest rate of medical debt in the nation. Vice-President Harris applauded the plan, pointing out that the Biden Administration has forgiven $650 million dollars worth of medical debt so far with plans to forgive up to $7 billion by 2026. The Vice-President unveiled plans to exclude medical debt from credit scores and issued a call for states and local governments to forgive debt, like North Carolina is, last month.

The Department of Transportation put forward a new rule to bank junk fees for family air travel. The new rule forces airlines to seat parents next to their children, with no extra cost. Currently parents are forced to pay extra to assure they are seated next to their children, no matter what age, if they don't they run the risk of being separated on a long flight. Airlines would be required to seat children age 13 and under with their parent or accompanying adult at no extra charge.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced it is giving $3.5 billion to combat homelessness. This represents the single largest one year investment in fighting homelessness in HUD's history. The money will be distributed by grants to local organizations and programs. HUD has a special focus on survivors of domestic violence, youth homeless, and people experiencing the unique challenges of homelessness in rural areas.

The Treasury Department announced that Pennsylvania and New Mexico would be joining the IRS' direct file program for 2025. The program was tested as a pilot in a number of states in 2024, saving 140,000 tax payers $5.6 million in filing charges and getting tax returns of $90 million. The program, paid for by President Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, will be available to all 50 states, but Republicans strong object. Pennsylvania and New Mexico join Oregon and New Jersey in being new states to join.

Bonus: President Biden with the families of the released hostages calling their loved ones on the plane out of Russia

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

On 7/31/2019 Trump has a private meeting with Putin. On 8/3/2019, just 3 days after his private meeting with Putin, Trump issues a request for a list of top US spies. By 2021 the CIA reports an unusually high number of their agents are being captured and/or being murdered. During the search executed at Mar A Lago the FBI find more documents with lists of U.S. informants on them.

A Timeline

• FBI wiretapped Russian gambling ring headquartered at Trump Tower for two years - March 21, 2017

• Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador - May 15, 2017

• Trump, Putin Meet For 2 Hours In Helsinki - July 16, 2018

• Rand Paul Goes To Russia And Delivers Letter For Trump, Marking Our Era Of Irony - August 9, 2018

• Following the Money: Trump and Russia-Linked Transactions From the Campaign to the Presidential Inauguration - December 17, 2018

• The US extracted a top spy from Russia after Trump revealed classified information to the Russians in an Oval Office meeting - September 10, 2019

• Trump’s Loose Lips Force US to Extract Spy From Kremlin - September 10, 2019

• Was Mar-a-Lago Trespasser a Tourist or a Spy? A Judge Said Her Story Didn’t Hold Up. - November 25, 2019

• Trump downplays massive cyber hack on government after Pompeo links attack to Russia - December 19, 2020

• Russia has been cultivating Trump as an asset for 40 years, former KGB spy says - January 29, 2021

• There was Trump-Russia collusion — and Trump pardoned the colluder - April 17, 2021

• Longtime GOP operatives charged with funneling Russian national’s money to Trump, RNC - September 20, 2021

• Captured, Killed or Compromised: C.I.A. Admits to Losing Dozens of Informants - October 5, 2021

• Files Seized From Trump Are Part of Espionage Act Inquiry - August 12, 2022

• Ex-Clinton aide implies 'President of France' file found at Trump's home during Mar-a-Lago raid could be valuable to Putin as 'kompromat' - August 13, 2022

• Inventing Anna: The tale of a fake heiress, Mar-a-Lago, and an FBI investigation - August 22, 2022

• Russians used a US firm to funnel funds to GOP in 2018. Dems say the FEC let them get away with it - October 30, 2022

• Trump makes shocking comments about trusting Putin over US 'intelligence lowlifes' - January 31, 2023

• Russia's Prigozhin admits links to what US says was election meddling troll farm - February 14, 2023

• GOP operative sentenced to 18 months for funneling Russian money to Trump- February 17, 2023

• Trump allegedly discussed US nuclear subs with foreign national after leaving White House: Sources - October 5, 2023

• 'So appalled': What witnesses told special counsel about Trump's handling of classified info while still president - April 24, 2024

🤔🤔🤔

[beardedmrbean]

Adair, Iowa, had a population of 794. So, it seemed suspicious when its three-person police department asked regulators to buy 90 machine guns, including an M134 Gatling-style minigun capable of shooting up to 6,000 rounds of ammunition every minute. 

Federal agents later discovered Adair's police chief, Bradley Wendt, was using his position to acquire weapons and sell them for personal profit. A jury convicted Wendt earlier this year of conspiracy to defraud the United States, lying to federal law enforcement and illegal possession of a machine gun. Wendt is unapologetic and has appealed his conviction. 

"If I'm guilty of this, every cop in the nation's going to jail," Wendt told CBS News just days before a federal judge sentenced him to a 5-year prison term. Wendt's crimes appear to be part of a nationwide pattern.

A CBS News investigation found dozens of law enforcement leaders — sheriffs, captains, lieutenants, chiefs of police — buying and illegally selling firearms, even weapons of war, across 23 U.S. states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., from the Deep South to the Midwest, Northeast and California coast. 

A nationwide review of government audits and court records over the last 20 years uncovered at least 50 cases of police illegally selling their weapons online, through dealers, out of their homes or the back of their cars. In many cases, the weapons were sold to gun enthusiasts, often at steep markups as high as 10 times what they were bought for. 

In several cases, the guns wound up in the hands of violent felons and were used to commit crimes including drug trafficking, international arms dealing and, in one case, the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old boy attending a high school football game. 

In 2011, federal agents busted a smuggling ring out of New Mexico involving a police chief, mayor and village trustee who delivered automatic firepower and tactical gear to a Mexican cartel.  

A decade later, prosecutors uncovered a multistate conspiracy linking a sanctioned Russian arms dealer with three police chiefs, one sheriff and a Delta Force veteran who sold machine guns directly to a criminal trafficker. All of them pleaded guilty. An additional alleged co-conspirator, who worked as an intelligence analyst for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, denied wrongdoing and his case is proceeding to trial. 

Nearly 26,000 guns were traced from American crime scenes back to a government agency, law enforcement or the military between 2017 and 2021, the most recently available data, according to a report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It isn't known how many of those were lost, stolen or sold. However, when government auditors investigated firearms that law enforcement agencies reported missing over a 15-year period, the General Services Administration Inspector General found that more than two-thirds had not gone missing at all but, rather, were inappropriately sold or traded —including Uzis and grenade launchers that were never recovered.  

Meanwhile, a separate Government Accountability Office audit in 2018 found $100 million worth of guns and ammunition bought by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was unaccounted for. In response, ICE said that it improved how it would keep track of its inventory going forward; there was no follow-up about the weapons that were already missing. ICE did not respond to CBS News' request for comment. 

Of the 58 cases CBS News identified where law enforcement officers were criminally charged with illegally selling their weapons, 56 of them either admitted guilt or were convicted; two have denied wrongdoing in ongoing cases. 

Those cases are just the tip of the iceberg, according to interviews with half a dozen former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents who worked directly on these investigations. Several career agents shared anecdotes about letting police departments off with warnings after repeatedly finding their service weapons in the hands of private citizens. The agents explained that prosecutors have been generally reluctant to charge these cases, and the bureau stated that "it is our goal to educate, not investigate," according to a 2017 law enforcement memo obtained by CBS News. 

"We're not looking to prosecute fellow law enforcement officers," said Eric Harden, former special agent in charge of the ATF's Los Angeles field division.  

Harden authored the 2017 memo, which flagged a "growing trend" of "officers purchasing and then selling [restricted] firearms...for profit." The memo warned that anyone doing this was functionally acting as a straw purchaser in violation of at least two federal laws.  

Harden told CBS News that if officers persisted after being warned, or if their weapons were traced to a crime, they should be held accountable. "If we don't do this, then it'll be turning a blind eye and saying officers are above the law."  _______________________

Harden wrote the memo after his intelligence unit traced an outlawed pistol seized in a narcotics bust to a recent purchase by a beat cop in Pasadena, California. Now retired, Harden still remembers that officer crying on his shoulder when federal agents showed up to arrest him for illegally selling more than 100 weapons out of his home. The officer argued at the time that he didn't know he was breaking the law, but he later pleaded guilty. He served less than a year in federal prison and paid a $10,000 fine but was allowed to keep his Porsche and Alfa Romeo. 

On the other side of LA County, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer, with secret-level security clearance, was operating an even more egregious gun-running scheme that went on for 20 years. He too eventually pleaded guilty, in 2019, after an undercover agent busted him selling weapons out of the trunk of his car. His stockpile at the time totaled more than 250 firearms, including 41 machine guns and two short-barreled rifles. 

The officer "betrayed his oath to uphold the laws of the United States solely to put more money in his pocket," the U.S. Attorney said in announcing the news of the officer's prison sentence. 

Several cases involved sheriffs and police leadership who used their positions in law enforcement to gain access to military-grade machine guns, short-barreled rifles and explosive devices like grenades, and then sold them in violation of federal law. 

Although the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, there are limits to the kinds of weapons people are allowed to possess. Post-1986, these weapons — known to the ATF as Class 3/Title II and to the gun industry as "posties"— have been restricted for official government use because of their deadly firepower. Many of them are battlefield weapons used by U.S. and NATO forces in conflict zones. Some ammunition can take out a helicopter or blow straight through an armored tank followed by a concrete building, out the other side, then explode, hitting targets 18 football fields away. These guns can spew hundreds of rounds each minute, faster than the speed of sound. 

"Congress knew almost 100 years ago, in the days of Al Capone, that fully automatic weapons were unusually dangerous," ATF Director Steven Dettelbach said a public address on Feb. 28, 2023. "They have no place in our communities." 

The government loophole, however, has been exploited by opportunists who recruit law enforcement conspirators to help them bypass the American machine gun prohibition, according to law enforcement records and court filings obtained by CBS News that include text messages, videos and wiretapped audio conversations between people who were either convicted of or admitted participation in these schemes. 

CBS News found a trail of activity in social media videos and online web forums frequented by firearm aficionados discussing how to entice law enforcement allies into this illicit trade, which can be highly lucrative. Amid a series of online conversations reviewed by CBS News, one poster suggested that after law enforcement acquired a $10,000 machine gun through the federal approval process, it could be worth $75,000 because it would be free of red tape. Wendt, the Iowa police chief, for example, at times earned more than a 90% profit margin, according to court records. 

"Here is a breakdown of who signs for me," advised another online user, identifying one police chief, one sheriff, one SWAT officer and one deputy sheriff with whom he said he attended high school. 

For police departments to get ahold of such high-powered weaponry, each one needs permission from the ATF. Even though it has been the law for more than three decades, the ATF only started vetting every machine gun application for the first time in January 2023 to confirm that a legitimate government agency was making the request.  

According to interviews with half a dozen longtime ATF officials who worked directly on these cases, the bureau typically does not assess the appropriateness of the weapons for a department or track where they end up. 

"There's no audits," said former Supervisory Special Agent Tim Graden, who worked at the ATF for more than two decades before retiring in 2022. "There was no second-guessing whatsoever. They weren't really — I don't want to use the word concerned, but I can't think of a better one." 

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives declined requests to comment.  

It's unclear how pervasive this is nationwide, but in Iowa alone over the past five years, the ATF did not deny a single law enforcement request for machine guns "based on suitability (or lack thereof)," according to court filings. By 2023, there were more than 1,200 machine guns registered to law enforcement across the state.  

To find out how that compares to other places, CBS News filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests with the ATF for details about the high-powered arsenal it's granted to public law enforcement over the past decade. However, the bureau denied those requests, stating that it considers that private tax information exempt from public disclosure. Last week, CBS News filed a lawsuit for the information. 

The proliferation of this high-powered weaponry is likely to become increasingly more relevant when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. During his first administration, Trump revoked an Obama-era executive order restricting the transfer of military equipment from the Defense Department to law enforcement nationwide. The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment.

[all-things-are-nothing-to-me]

Nearly as soon as the Bolsheviks took power, they began to execute anarchists and Socialist Revolutionaries, most of whom had fought alongside the Bolsheviks in the Revolution. They also purged elements of their own party deemed "anti-Soviet" or "counter-revolutionary." This state repression was well documented by the Soviet government, but here we have chosen to use journals and letters of those affected. Lithuanian-American Jewish anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman describe the Bolshevik betrayal: The systematic man-hunt of anarchists [...] with the result that every prison and jail in Soviet Russia filled with our comrades, fully coincided in time and spirit with Lenin's speech at the Tenth Congress of the Russian Communist Party. On that occasion Lenin announced that the most merciless war must be declared against what he termed "the petty bourgeois anarchist elements" which, according to him, are developing even within the Communist Party [...] On the very day that Lenin made the above statement, numbers of anarchists were arrested all over the country, without the least cause or explanation. The conditions of their imprisonment are exceptionally vile and brutal. (Boni, 253)

[flowerbloom-arts]

1, 14, 15 and 16 for the simpsons OC asks! ♥

@paranormal-librarian

1 – How did you discover the show in the first place? Did it inspire you to create an OC right away, or later on?

I think I've always been mildly aware of the Simpsons (given how prominent it is in meme circles on the internet) and I had a... Let's just say mild obsession with Steamed Hams during its hey day back in 2018-2019, it wasn't until July of 2024 when I started getting obsessed with it again after diving into Big Iron memes that I started getting curious about Chalmers and Skinner thanks to YouTube recommending me a clip of Chalmers showing off his Honda to Skinner, and then my darling mutual @hunsa-jars found the ship wiki for ChalmSkinn, and then I watched Road to Cincinnati, and the rest is historyyyy....... Yaaaaayyyyyy!!!

It took me a while to get inspired to make an OC because I have to look at the landscape of the media I'm getting into and see the sorts of characters that haven't been done yet. It always has to be a character I thought would be an interesting concept or worth a good story to be told.

My thought process with Delilah stemmed from looking at the assortment of love interests Skinner had and thought "You know, wouldn't it be funny if Seymour had like, one girlfriend who really really wanted to kill his mom for him, because Agnes is kind of the root issue of all his concrete relationship troubles."

And so, a sexy undercover Slavic spy is born! I wanted to base her off my own real life experiences with Slavic culture that aren't really represented in American media - so rather than making her Russian I chose to make her Yugoslavian, or rather, an ethnic Macedonian from Yugoslavia before it broke apart. Her fake identity as a Western German immigrant is also inspired by my own mom's childhood in Germany.

I thought basing her off the flirtatious female communist spy trope you see in mostly British media would make for an interesting foil to Skinner's character as a Special Forces soldier who fought in Vietnam. Skinner is depicted as more explicitly anti-communist in the comics, and a post-Cold War Romeo and Juliet layer on top of the whole murder girlfriend story would be an interesting way to explore Skinner's connection to his national identity and whatever ideology compelled him to volunteer for the war effort in the first place, as well as present a more complex look at the other side of the conflict.

14 – How would you consider your OC’s role in the show? Are they a major character like the Simpson family? Are they more likely to just be seen in the background? Or something in between?

Delilah (or rather, Матеа), would be a one-off love interest for Skinner, likely somewhere before he started dating Edna in season 8. And I KNOW the show has an epidemic of one-off love interests especially for female characters and god do I wish they'd utilize characters like Mindy or Gloria more besides relationship stuff but Delilah's backstory is not exactly built to withstand the test of time, just like Skinner's backstory as a Vietnam war veteran (in fact we're inching closer to a state where him being an Iraq war vet would be a more logical backstory, which is terrifying to think about. He's be born in 1980 if he's still 44 y/o today).

If you really want to push me to come up with an idea for a re-appearance I think she'd come back as a substitute teacher again after having broken out of federal prison under a new identity and then becoming a semi-regular background character for space nerd stuff.

15 – If they were in the show, what would be your OC’s main gimmick? Similarly, what would more likely happen to them in an episode?

Again, Delilah would be a one-off love interest, but in terms of gimmicks... I dunno, what would really count as a gimmick? I think her struggling to regain a regular life in the US as a Slavic immigrant would be a fun, if sad, turn of events. She'd probably resort to threatening violence at the mildest inconvenience too, I bet.

16 – What would an episode centered on your OC look like? Are there specific themes that would be explored through your OC's life?

I think Delilah would be introduced as a regular substitute teacher from formerly West Germany filling in for Edna or Hoover because they're sick or hungover or in some other kind of school-ditching nonsense, or perhaps the school finally gains the budget to add an actual specialized teacher to the language lab, it doesn't really matter.

The episode continues with Delilah trying to seduce Skinner into giving her "special benefits", like a pay raise ("Damn capitalists and their tiny wages for educators!") where she finds out about Skinner's issues pertaining to his mom, like her freakish control over his love life (or lack thereof). Delilah makes the connection that she needs to get rid of the problem that causing Skinner to not solve her problem, and that would be killing Agnes, and therein lies the main conflict of the episode.

The episode would be about Delilah trying to worm her way into Skinner's pants and convince him to get rid of Agnes from his life under the guise of regular after-school hangouts as friends or as staff bonding activities, only to be charmed by his nerdy sincerity outside of work and the motivation shifting to killing Agnes because she's such a horrible mother to this poor, sweet man.

She'd find out about his interest in space which she shares and they'd go to a space museum and have so much fun there. She'd be such a Bad Girl about it to contrast Skinner's goody-two-shoes attitude, breaking in after operating hours and guiding him by the hand and bypassing the security systems with whatever Russian technology she still has in her arsenal, and when they have a very touching moment looking at the stars and Delilah revealing some of her heart to him, she drops the suggestion to Skinner that he should dispose of Agnes, which he's immediately taken aback by and declines, awkwardly leaving her afterwards.

The sunk-cost fallacy of their relationship pushes Delilah to do the job herself, because really, this whole time, she's been projecting her own parental issues onto Skinner. Her own father was an abusive man and the government killing him for treason against the state was the best thing to have happened to her. She thinks Seymour should be afforded the same relief from his own mother, too.

He's such a simple man who seems happy and given determination to live by the simplest pleasures and she wants that, she wants the same thing, she's felt so lost since the USSR dissolved while she was doing espionage in the USA and being stuck there ever since, she's always felt lost in her national identity since it was expected of her to conform to the identity of "Yugoslavic" which was dominated by the Serbs in her territory, it was Macedonian nationalism that compelled her father to commit treason, after all, but now she has no identity to be proud of. Every nation she could call allegiance to has been put to shame, every name she's given herself was fabricated for the same of those disgraced nations, and she can't even use her real name in fear of the enemy government punishing her.

She just wants a life spent on something that made her genuinely happy, and spending time with a fellow nerd at heart was the happiest she's felt in a while. So yes, she'll kill Agnes even if she has to climb the roof and point a gun at her herself. Skinner's puppy eyes, however, convinces her otherwise, and he seems to express enough sympathy despite his panic to call her down. But before she could make a change in her life, the police and federal agents find her and arrest her, never to be heard from again.

The Balkans have always been in a constant back and forth of territory and national identity, being invaded by empire after empire after united states and even still we fight eachother on borders, all the while the US has always stood firmly under that red, white and blue flag by comparison. It'd be a story about the identity crises of many slavs that had to deal with the aftermath of the Soviet Union falling apart in the 90s, having to deal with all the trauma that it brought and couldn't possibly heal soon enough.

Матеа had trained and lied and learned and killed and done so many things only for her nation to Lose, and that's such a massive blow to everything she built with her life. Everything she did suddenly became worthless, and she wanted to reach for and live vicariously through someone else who was happier by comparison, who had just one problem with a simple solution - if only true happiness could be achieved by killing one single person.

[henk-heijmans]

Giant otter is eating fish in water, Pantanal National Park, Brazil, 2018 - by Andrey Gudkov, Russian

[triptychgrip]

Time-Travel Ficlet, Part 1: Yuuri (25) meets Viktor (18)

“Those eyes! Those thighs! I might be ruined for other guys!”

Yuuri’s jaw dropped at the lilt of sing-songy English, and the fear that had snaked around his chest upon entering the room slipped away in favor of confusion. 

He stared straight ahead, frozen, at the sight of the lithe figure swaying in front of his and Viktor’s main medal/photo display.

If Yuuri didn’t know for a fact that Viktor was with Makkachin at the groomer’s, he might have just assumed his fiance had decided to surprise him by donning a wig. The intruder’s long, silky hair perfectly matched the shade of Viktor’s own, and the Russian national team jacket tied around their waist was the same one that Viktor wore, though rarely around their apartment. 

Before he could reclaim the voice that had died in his throat, the Viktor look-alike leaned forward and pressed a smacking kiss to the glass-covered photo from the 2018 Olympic Games medal ceremony. At the same time, their fingers lovingly ran over the printed caption: Japan’s Katsuki Yuuri takes gold over Kazakhstan’s Otabek Altin (bronze medalist), and OAR skater Viktor Nikiforov (silver medalist).

From the angle Yuuri stood, he could see the stranger had targeted a spot directly on his beaming face, dripping with tears as a Games officiant placed the gold around his neck. (He’d since stopped dreaming about that surreal moment, but for a solid three months after, it’d been the prime focus of his subconscious, even beating out dreams in which Viktor swam around naked in a gigantic bowl of katsudon, somehow still appearing seductive despite the bits of scrambled egg in his hair.)

Yuuri couldn’t help it; this intruder’s apparent infatuation with him was so strangely reminiscent of Viktor's that he giggled, involuntarily. Then clapped his hands over his mouth.

The stranger whirled around with fluid grace and swirls of pink began to bloom on his(?) cheeks, presumably from having been caught kissing an inanimate object in someone else's home. 

Yuuri felt his heart come to a complete standstill.

What the fuck?

These three words zipped through his head upon noting the striking azure hue of the intruder’s shock-widened eyes, and how they matched Viktor’s exactly.

As Yuuri’s gaze roved over his slim-hipped frame, he took in the slighter proportions of the body as compared to his fiance’s, the more curved shape of his eyebrows, and the way he held himself differently, his weight evenly balanced between both feet instead of favoring one side. Clearly, this was not the same body that had undergone knee surgery for a torn meniscus seven years ago. 

A cursory run-through of the teen Viktor images in his fanboy archive led Yuuri to believe that this…

…clone?

...expert impersonator?

...time traveler?

Well, whatever the case, Yuuri strongly suspected this Other Viktor was around 17 or 18. 

Of course, the most significant difference between his fiance and this stranger was the absence of any gold around the latter’s long, elegant fingers.

“It’s you!” Other Viktor cried, exultingly, swiveling his head back and forth between photo-Yuuri and real, petrified Yuuri (the latter still sweaty and flushed after ballet, and deeply regretting having worn the grotesque “Gnome on the Roam” t-shirt Phichit had jokingly bought for him a few Christmases ago).

He swallowed and nodded, haltingly. 

“Yes, that’s correct…I’m Yuuri,” he mumbled, in croaky Russian.

And then his heart began doing somersaults, because Other Viktor’s shocked features transformed in a split-second. His entire face lit up, and his lips broadened into that heart-shape that always made Yuuri feel like he was floating.

“Wow! This must be my lucky day!” the stranger cried, clutching both hands over his heart. “I’ll admit, at first I was a little dejected about the time travel thing, not to mention the state of my future self’s hairline, but never mind, that! It’s not everyday that I get to meet a fellow Olympic champion in the flesh! Especially one that’s as cute as you, and who speaks Russian.”

Yuuri’s mind reeled; so this really was a cosmic blip of time-travel!

Due to his bewilderment, he couldn’t find it in himself to review the words that came tumbling out of his mouth. 

“I don’t speak Russian as well as you, of course, but I minored in it in college,” he blurted out, knowing his sister likely would have given anything in the world to be present for this admission. “I thought it would help me understand your interviews.” 

As soon as Yuuri had divulged this extremely fanboyish tidbit, his ears went bright pink, radiating a scorching heat that he sort of wished would consume him in a fiery blaze. Then again, he remembered how absolutely ecstatic Viktor had been when he’d found this out, so…maybe the embarrassment would be worth it?

But to his horror, Younger Viktor’s face instantly crumpled, his features twisting into an expression of unmistakable heartbreak.

“I knew it,” he replied, his tone bitter and despairing. “I’m dreaming. There’s no way someone as perfect as you could take an interest in me.”

Yuuri’s jaw almost fell open due to the absurdity of such a sentiment, but he shuffled forwards, desperate to vanquish the look of defeat from the other's face; this might not be His Viktor, but no version of his love should ever look so sad. 

It felt cosmically wrong to Yuuri.

“You’re not dreaming,” he mumbled, but knowing words could only go so far, he edged closer and closer, eventually reaching out for Younger Viktor's hand.

Upon contact, he inhaled, sharply, and Yuuri actually winced at the sudden death grip around his fingers.

“Yuuri, judging by the fact that you’re here in my apartment…”

Younger Viktor trailed off, looking wrong-footed, but then quickly corrected himself. 

“Well, a version of my apartment, anyway. And, that you mentioned wanting to understand my interviews and how you’re holding my hand just right...” he continued, with an obvious tremor in his voice. “How do we know each other?”

—

I’ve had time travel on the brain for the last few few weeks, and in addition to working on a one-shot -- preview here -- where 28-year-old Yuuri meets his 18-year-old self (the latter brand-new to Detroit and very homesick), I also thought it’d be fun to write something where Yuuri gets to meet teen Viktor, too. 

I’m aiming to post a part 2 (and likely 3!) ficlet soon :)

[dreamcast641]

SCP OC: Claire Ekaterina Makarova

I decided to make an actual detailed post about Claire, finally. I created her in august 2018 and I got a lot of time to develop here and I'm really, really satisfied of how she turned out to be.

--------------------------------------------------------

GENERAL INFORMATIONS:

Full Name: Claire Ekaterina Makarova

Aliases/nicknames: Stoat (callsign), shortie, shortstack

Age: 26-30 years old

Gender: Female

Pronouns: She/her

Sexual orientation: Demiromantic/demisexual and pansexual

Date of birth:November 2nd

Place of birth: Unknown but it's somewhere in the USA

Current residence: site 5c

Nationality: American with slavic origins

Spoken Languages: American English (main), Russian ( ONLY with her dad) and American sign language (ASL)

Affiliations/organizations: SCP foundation

Occupation: Mobile Task force Beta-7 ''Maz hatters'' operator, virologist/biologist when not on field, ISD (internal security department) agent.

Rank: unknown

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

APPEARANCE

BUILD: A bit chubby

— Claire is a buxom woman who has curves all over her body, wide hips and a slight bit of fat in her tummy.

— She particularly cares about her image, especially when it comes to taking care of her body.She trains regularly in the small gym made available by the site 5c, focusing on arms and legs, parts of the body that are fundamental to her for work. It takes muscle to hold a rifle that weighs almost half her weight on her so as not to wobble on the recoil.

-----

SCARS: All over her body

— Claire has many, if not too many, wounds all over her body. From cuts to bruises to burns and even gunshot wounds.

— Her little patient behavior and her indifference has led her over the years to participate in many fights, whether they are initiated by her or are part of her job, when it comes to fighting she has always been in the front row. Not caring about the size and danger of whoever is in front of her. This has led Claire to have countless wounds on her body, many of them being stab wounds, a gunshot on her right shoulder, a large burn on her left shoulder and as many bruises..

------

VOICE: silvery/soft spoken

— slow spoken and not too high voice but at times decisive when needed.

— It's almost as if her voice doesn't match her body. With her character like hers, those around her expect an annoying redundant high-pitched voice to split the eardrums. Hers is an almost calm voice, not too high and maternal.

-----

EYES: Grey/blue

— blue eyes so undersaturated they look gray.

— she inherited light eyes from both parents, but the mother's gene seemed to dominate between the two. Both have blue eyes but Claire's are less saturated, almost gray as opposed to her mother's, blue as ice

-------

FASHION: casual

— casual, doesn't really care for fashion.

— When she's not working, claire usually wears the first thing she finds in her closet, preferring loose-fitting clothes that don't show too much of her body shapes.

------------

More about her aspect:

-Claire has mixed vitiligo all over her body. It started when she was just 5 to 6 years old and it spreaded everywhere;

-Her vitiligo not only affected her skin but also her hair, eyelashes and eyebrow;

-She is only 5'1 ft or 154 cm in height.

FAVORITES

-Color: Black

-Food: Raw Salmon

-Drink: Chamomille with honey

-Song: Ecoute Cherie (vendredi sur Mer)

-Flower: Nightsky petunia

-Hairstyle: messy bun

------------------

PHOBIAS

-Autophobia: also called monophobia, isolophobia, or eremophobia, is the specific phobia or a morbid fear or dread of oneself or of being alone, isolated, abandoned, and ignored;

-athazagoraphobia: When a person has this condition, there is an extreme fear of being forgotten, or of not remembering someone or something. It may also include a fear of being ignored or replaced;

-Atychiphobia:is an intense fear of failure

-Arachnophobia: fear of spiders

-------------------------------------------------

PERSONALITY:

-Moral alignment: Chaotic Neutral

-Myers-Briggs: ENTJ-T

POSITIVE TRAITS

- Serious and efficient but also considerate in the role she covers inside the foundation walls: She makes everyone feel included in her squad no matter what. She is always willing to help them, no one is left behind.

-Observant...a bit too much. If there is something that her training with the ISD thought her is to be aware constantly of her sorroundings. No details is going unnoticed in her presence.

-Gentle and caring with close ones. She pours her heart with who she loves.

-Practical smart. Let's say that she is good at improvise when needed.

-Respected without using fear

NEGATIVE TRAITS

-Claire's past and experiences have led her to be inconsiderate of herself, and those closest to her tend to see it for how expressive she is, without needing her to be alone to show how she really feels. she is a woman with a thousand complexes, her self-esteem has been destroyed and under her feet. She can't be really sure about anything she does especially if it affects those around her too. She refuses any leadership position, unwilling to take responsibility for any deaths that may occur under her leadership.

-So low is her self-esteem that she can't even see the value of her life, risking it every day to protect others at the expense of her own. She has seen death right in her eyes so many times that she no longer fears it. She is not afraid to die but at the same time the idea of being forgotten and replaced, as she has already seen happen to her other deceased colleagues, puts a shiver down her spine.

-Claire gets heated pretty easily, leading her to not think straight when she is outraged.

-She tends to distance people from herself due to her trust issues. It really takes time for her to open up to someone.

-Absolute stubborn. Claire does not listen when she is convinced of something.

TRIVIA:

-She absolutely love when her friends makes hand-made stuff for her. She keep them like it's the most precious thing in the world;

-It happens that Claire goes for some days to negaseattle to visit her adopted brother Ira and helping him with the clone kids (check more on Raddagher's author page on the wiki);

-She has a yellow ringneck parrot named banana. He is her emotional support animal;

-BPD (bordeline personality disorder) that she is getting treated for and is under enough control for her to be operative;

-She loves reading almost everything especially if it's related to her job;

-One hell of a cook. She is very, very good in the kitchen;

-She smells like peaches and chocolate;

-Aggressive and very skilled in combat. Knife is her specialization;

-Uses stealth, skills and the enviroment over the strenght;

-Good swimmer, loves using water to her advantage in fights by drowning or exhausting people;

-Survivor's guilt.

SUMMARY OF HER STORY (STILL NOT SO DONE)

It is not known for certain where Claire and her twin brother Dmitry were born, it is only known that they came to light somewhere hidden in the United States of America.

Raised in the hostile environment of the foundation but with the loving care of their mother Mandy Ross, a former nurse in the US Navy. Their father? Locked in the same site where they were born, metal walls separating this potentially dangerous man due to the toxic, potentially lethal nature of his body.

In the early years of their lives, the twins immediately reveal themselves as curious troublemakers, always looking for other children like them to socialize with and will end up bonding closely with one of them in particular: Ira Watts, whom they will consider for life as a brother.

Mandy, for reasons still unknown to them, decides to leave them and the foundation to join the GOC. it was this event that unleashed in her an immense fear of abandonment. Left to their own devices, Claire was the one she had to mature early to take care of her two brothers.

At just 14, the three were separated by the foundation to be introduced to their respective careers.

While Dmitry continued his medical and psychiatric studies, Claire had to stay on that site with Ira to begin her training to join one of the mobile task forces.

''Mobile Task Forces (MTFs) are elite units comprised of personnel drawn from across the Foundation and are mobilized to deal with specific threats or situations that sometimes exceed the operational capacity or expertise of regular field personnel and — as their name suggests — may be relocated between facilities or locations as they are needed. Mobile Task Force personnel represent the "best of the best" of the Foundation.''

And with this clarification, let's say that the training Claire had to undergo was hard and exhausting. She pushed to her limits so many times by her serious and rigid mentor that she was assigned to reach high, real high expectations.

To be ''the best of the best'' she had to shed all of her blood and her will. She failed many times but thanks to this she also managed to learn from her mistakes and correct herself, perhaps becoming probably one of the best students on the site...if not for her rebelious behavior.

Training wasn't Claire's only focus in those years: she was studying biology and virology because of the task force she decided to join, the beta-7. Her knowledge will prove to be fundamental in the future.

Her training and studies ended as soon as they began. At just 22, claire was already serving as a member of mobile task force beta-7 at a different site.

During her years at the site, now with her brother Dmitry, the two were approached by a man from the Internal Security Department (ISD) who was determined to recruit them as they were loyal members of the foundation. The two naively accepted and it was that meeting and that assignment that led them to site 5c where they still reside nowdays.

SITE 5C STORY LINE

(coming soon)

[cottoncandytrafficcones]

10 Cool Jewish Women from Modern Day! Part 2 because I'm on a role

Liz Kleinrock, a self-described "Korean, Jewish, queer, transracial adoptee, antibias and antiracist nationally recognized educator, author, and consultant." Born in Korea, she was adopted by an Ashkenazi Jewish family in Washington D.C.. Involved in education, with a Masters in UCLA's Teacher Education Program, she has taught in California and D.C., and has also worked as a school librarian. In 2018, she received Learning for Justice's Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Loolwa Khazzoom, an Iraqi-American writer, journalist, activist, musician, and feminist. She was heavily involved in the Jewish feminist movement of the 1990s and is the founder of the Jewish Multicultural Project, which provides resources to Jewish communities about diversity in Jewish culture. She has also been involved in SOJIAC and JIMENA. Raised in California to an American Jewish mother and an Iraqi Jewish father, she graduated from Barnard College in 1991. She participated in a filming about the interplay of race and gender in America called The Way Home. She is the lead singer and bass player of Iraqis in Pajamas, a punk rock band that uses traditional Iraqi and Jewish musical elements.

Ariela Sofer, and Israeli and American operations researcher who is a professor of systems engineering and operations research, as well as a Divisional Dean, at George Mason Acamdey. She is a published author, with two books on Lineaer and Nonlinear Programming. Named as a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences in 2016, she is also a Fellow of the Institute of Industrial and System Engineers and the International Council on Systems Engineering.

Ayelet Newman, also known as Ayelet the Kosher Comic, is an Orthodox stand up comedian. Born to a secular Jewish family on long Island, she pursued a career in TV and film after high school, appearing in The Hebrew Hammer. She became a baalat teshuva in the early 2000s, when she quit acting and began pursuing comedy, performing only for women.

Adina Sash, a Brooklyn raised American Jewish activist and social media influencer, also known as FlatbushGirl. Holding a Master's degree in Medieval literature from Brooklyn College, her online activism was started after receiving sexist comments. In 2017,s he launched a social media campaign called #FrumWomenHaveFaces that raised awareness of the erasing of women from Orthodox newspapers and magazine, gaining the support of Mayim Bialik (Jewish actress).

Tova Ben-Dov, former president of the Women's International Zionist Organization and former vice president of the World Jewish Congress, as well as a board member for the Jewish Agency for Israel and the International Alliance of Women. She joined WIZO as a young mother, and worked in the Chair of Women's Training Department of WIZO Israel. In 2011, she was awarded Honoree of Tel Aviv, and in 2016 the title of Honorary Fellow of the World Zionist Congress.

Kat Graham, an American actress, singer, dancer, author, and activist. Born in Geneva, Switzerland, to an Americo-Liberian father and a Polish and Russian Jewish mother. Co-founder of he wellness company Modern Nirvana, she had released work focusing on self-help. She speaks English, French, Spanish, and some Hebrew and Portuguese. She is known for her role as Bonnie Bennett on the CW show The Vampire Diaries, and has released two extended plays and four studio albums. She has done work as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency, inspired by her family's history.

Dafna Bar-Sagi, an Israeli born cell biologist and cancer researcher at New York University School of Medicine. She is member of the scientific advisory boards, including the National Cancer Institute. A graduate of Bar-Ilan, where she earned her undergraduate and master's in neurobiology, she received her PhD in neurobiology from the State University of New York as Stony Brook. Her research focuses on the nature of he Ras oncogene and how Ras signaling leads to tumor development. She has been the vice dean for science, chief scientific officer, and executive vice president of NYU Langone Health.

Malika Kalontarova, a Tajikistan born Bukharian dancer known as the "Queen of Tajik and Oriental Dance." Rebellious as a child, she has always identified as Jewish, despite Antisemitism in Tajikstan. Trained by Ghaffor Valamatzoda and Remziye Tarsinova, she moved to Queens in 1993 where she opened up her own dance studio.

Jazz Jennings, an American spokeswoman and Queer activist. An honorary co-founder of he TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation, which her parents founded in 2007, she is one of the youngest documented people to be recorded as transgender. She was accepted into and currently attends Harvard University. In 2013, at only 13 years old, she founded Purple Rainbow Tails, while engaging in a battle with the USSF to allow her to play on a girls' soccer team. She is a published author, and in 2014 was named one of the top 25 most influential teens. She has voiced several characters in an animated shows, and starred in an Amazon Prime movie.

[figureskatingcostumes]

Kirill Iakovlev skating to Nino Rota's Romeo and Juliet for his free program at the 2019 Junior Russian Championships and 2018 Junior Grand Prix Kaunas.

(Sources: 1 and 2)

[solarbird]

What they’re burying with the push to remove Biden

I wrote this yesterday, before they pushed Biden out. All this is still true.

Here’s what the major/legacy press are burying with wall-to-wall coverage of the massive billionaire-fuelled push to remove Biden:

The sheer, raw, overt racism and white supremacy of the Republican base. Not just mass booing a non-white speaker at the convention, but condemning their own VP nominee for not having a White wife. They’ll shut up about the latter, but we really, really shouldn’t.

That this includes outright calls to remove 15 to 20 million people in an ethnic purge. That’s not implied; that’s pre-printed official signs at the convention.

It will require a mass militarisation; Trump has been readying his supporters for horrific images for the last few months at his rallies. Popehat discusses the inevitable result: “We’re going to be an occupied nation. Detention of citizens and lawful residents is inevitable and in fact clearly intended. Large-scale violence against immigrants, suspected immigrants, and bystanders is inevitable and clearly intended.“

Citizenship won’t protect you; they intend to strip citizenship from naturalised citizens, too. They already had a task for on how to do it, back in 2018; this time, they will implement, and the Republican Supreme Court will let them.

Christian Nationalist Speaker of the House Mike Johnson backs this ethnic purge, by the way. When people say it’s “just Trump being Trump” point them at all this reality.

White nationalist speakers at the convention? Check! Core MAGAts calling Vice-President Harris a “coloured” “DEI hire”? Check!

The near-unity of his campaign with Project 2025, and all it entails – including not just his announced plans to bring its contributors to his next administration but six members of his previous cabinet, and his own chosen VP, JD Vance.

Medium has a whole page up on how to track Project 2025 contributors and involvement in the previous and a possible future Trump administration.

Did I mention that JD Vance supports Russia in its imperial invasion of Ukraine? Russian domestic propagandaists are downright giddy with his nomination.

And that he considers rape an “inconvenience” and that victims should be forced to carry and deliver their rapists’ babies?

And that police should be able to monitor medical records to search for possible abortions?

And that he praised Alex Jones and InfoWars as a “truth teller” – the same Alex Jones who directed hate and violence against parents of slaughtered children for years, until finally brought down in court?

The complete and open embrace of violence by him and his base – going back to 2016. The insurrection of 2020 was only a midpoint, not a culmination. From the national to the political to the personal, the GOP is a party of violence. So much so, that even a lot of old-line Republicans are talking about it openly.

Too bad that doesn’t include the legacy press. Too bad that doesn’t include the New York Times, or the Washington Post, or CNN, or so many others.

But it can include you.

That’s what’s needed right now. You, doing the job of that press, making sure everybody knows the real stakes of what’s going on.

Yes, there is some real support from Democrats for removing Biden. It wouldn’t be getting anywhere without the major donor and press frenzy, but some of it’s real. And I absolutely will back whoever comes out of this nonsense, as must we all.

No matter how mad we may and may not be about it. Am I clear on that? No matter how mad.

Because this Republican nightmare is what the press aren’t covering -it’s not even all of it, just some important highlights – all while instead going wall-to-wall 24-by-seven on this nomination fiasco.

Keep plugging away, team. It’s up to us to make up that gap.

And always remember – we win this, if we do the work. We win this, if we fight.

106 days remain.

[comradesaucegay]

i had a friend who loves talking politics and when they were blindly worshipping ukraines military i tried to tell them about ukraines militarys white supremacy they got worked up and indirectly accused me of 'siding with russia'. then behind my back they went to a mutual friend saying that russians are spreading propaganda about ukrainians being white supremacists. just recently they came up to me saying that right wingers in the us are siding with russia and putin against ukraine. feels like im going crazy

i'm sorry about your friend. idk if it's worth trying to argue with them, but if they approach you about this again...

BBC, 2014: Ukraine underplays role of far right in conflict

Human Rights Watch, 2014: Ukraine: Unguided Rockets Killing Civilians

Truthout, 2015: The Ukraine Mess That Nuland Made

The Hill, 2017: The reality of neo-Nazis in Ukraine is far from Kremlin propaganda

The Guardian, 2017: 'I want to bring up a warrior': Ukraine's far-right children's camp – video

WaPo, 2018: The war in Ukraine is more devastating than you know

Reuters, 2018: Ukraine’s neo-Nazi problem

The Nation, 2019: Neo-Nazis and the Far Right Are On the March in Ukraine

[tomorrowusa]

Trump was putty in Putin's hands. That's the assessment of Gen. H.R. McMaster – a former national security adviser to Trump.

Vladimir Putin exploited Donald Trump’s “ego and insecurities” to exert an almost mesmeric hold over the former US president, who refused to entertain any negative evaluation of the autocratic Russian leader from his own staff, and ultimately fired his national security adviser, HR McMaster, over it. The bold assessment of Trump’s fealty to Putin comes in McMaster’s book At War With Ourselves: My Tour of Duty in the Trump White House, published by HarperCollins and arriving on 27 August. The Guardian obtained a copy. “After over a year in this job, I cannot understand Putin’s hold on Trump,” McMaster recalls saying in the memoir covering the turbulent 457 days the now retired general served as national security adviser from February 2017 until he was effectively fired by tweet in April 2018. The comment, to McMaster’s wife, Katie, came in the aftermath of the poisoning in the UK by Putin’s agents of Sergei Skripal, a Russian former intelligence officer, and his daughter, in March 2018. [ ... ] In reality, McMaster says, Putin’s apparent simpering over Trump was a calculated effort by the Russian leader to exploit the president and drive a wedge between him and hawkish advisers in Washington DC such as McMaster urging the US to take a harder line with the Kremlin. “Putin, a ruthless former KGB operator, played to Trump’s ego and insecurities with flattery,” McMaster writes. “Putin had described Trump as ‘a very outstanding person, talented, without any doubt’, and Trump had revealed his vulnerability to this approach, his affinity for strongmen, and his belief that he alone could forge a good relationship with Putin.

Weird Donald thinks he comes across as strong by hanging around with tyrants like Putin. In fact, he's just fawning for their approval because he's so personally insecure.

It's bad for American national security when a rogue Russian dictator finds it so easy to manipulate a US president. Vladimir Putin will pull out all the stops in manipulating the media to put his patsy back into the Oval Office.

[gepetordi2]

Giant otter is eating fish in water, Pantanal National Park, Brazil, 2018 - by Andrey Gudkov, Russian

[reading-writing-revolution]

🚨🚨🚨

A group of Russian nationals were able to donate to newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson's campaign in 2018 by funneling the money through a U.S. company.

Mike Johnson's Campaign Contributions From Company Tied to Russia